THE OCEAN VOYAGE 93 



enabled us to watch the fiery procession long after they 

 had passed our ship. Another beautiful sight was caused 

 by the wake of our ship which resembled the passing 



smoke of a bright fire and could be observed at a distance 

 of fully a hundred and fifty yards. However, it is an 

 erroneous supposition that the ocean produces such lights 

 on every dark night. Even in the tropics these phenom- 

 ena are rare occurrences. A week would pass at times 

 during which we hardly noticed a spark, and only then 

 when a procession of fish or a passing vessel would cause 

 a sudden break in the water. The most magnificent dis- 

 play of this phenomenon I ever witnessed occurred on 

 the 15th of duly, under the eighth degree of northern 

 latitude, a description of which I shall give you later 

 on— south of the La Plata, one can only see a few sparks 

 now and then and only on unusually dark nights; below 

 ( ape Horn nothing at all. I am told, on the other hand, 

 that during severe stormy winters there are phosphores- 

 cent displays in this latitude which outrank in splendor 

 anything ever witnessed in other parts. I have had no 

 opportunity of verifying this, however. 



As previously mentioned, we left the Bay of Biscaya 

 on Thursday, June 26th. ( >n Saturday we communicated 

 with an Austrian bark, "Nero," which was north-bound 

 and sailing under 14 36m. of Greenwich W. longitude, 

 and 41° 20m. X. lat.; it was taking freight from Odessa 

 to Antwerp. The same evening we observed a little bird, 

 homeward bound. The wind continued to be light and 

 contrary, often entirely absent. We again had a chance 

 to speak an English vessel, the brig "Eupheinia," which 

 earned freight from London to the Cape of Good Hope 

 and had been on her trip from Doverress about a fort- 

 night, now, like ourselves, taking a southern course. We 

 sighted the first dolphins on Tuesday, when twenty of 

 them were playing around our ship and the next morn- 

 ing, Wednesday, the 2d, we were surprised beyond de- 

 scription to be caught by a X. E. monsoon or trade wind 

 which rarely goes beyond Madeira, while we had only 

 reached the latitude of Gibraltar. As we now went along 



